Planetary clutch



J. DE MARIINO.

PLANETARY CLUTCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23, 1919.

1,41 0,384, Patented Mar. 21, 1922-.

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J. DE MARTINO.

PLANETARY CLUTCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE23. 1919.

1,410,384, Patented Mar. 21,1922.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

7 wejvor pm dz Mm J. DE MARTINO.

PLANETARY CLUTCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23. 1919.

1,410,384. Patented Mar. 21, 1922.

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1. DE MARTINO.

PLANETARY CLUTCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23. 1919.

Patented Mar. 21, 1922..

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J. DE MARTINO.

PLANETARY CLUTCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23, 1919.

Patented Mar. 21, 1922.

5 SHEETSSHEET 5- JOSEE'H DE MARTINO, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGHN'QR TOJOHN H. LEE, TRU$TEE,

F GHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 211, 1922.

Application filed June 23, 1919. Serial No. 306,0(55.

To aZZ whom it may concern Be it known that I, Josnrrr on MAn'rino, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cookand State of Illinois, have invented-a new and useful Improvement inPlanetary Clutches, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to clutches, particularly to planetary clutches,which are adapted to deliver power at a plurality of speed and areespecially designed to be used on automobiles either in connection witha transmission or without one. In the latter case of course it would benecessary to add a reversing mechanism as my clutch drives always in thesame direction.-

I An object of this invention is to provide a means for taking powerfrom a driving shaft and delivering it to a driven shaft in such a waythat the driven shaft will be driven at the same speed as the driveshaft or a speed which is at a fixed ratio to that speed.

Other objects will appear from the following specification and these areall accomplished by my invention which is described herein and set forthin the appended claims.

Reference is now had to the drawings in which Figure 1 is a longitudinalsection through one form of a clutch embodying my invention;

Figures 2, 3 and t are similar views of other modifications;

Figure 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 1;

Figure 6 is a section on the line 66 of Fig. 1.

My invention consists primarily in a clutch for transmitting power froma driving shaft 10 to a driven shaft 11. Figure 1 shows an embodiment ofmy clutch as supplied to a fly-wheel 12 which is secured in any suitablemanner to the driving shaft 10. This fly-wheel has formed therein anannular rim 13 having a series of bosses 14: through which pass bolts15, having shoulder 16 and nut 17 for securing the plate 18 to the faceof said annular rim. The inner edge of the plate 18 has an annular rim19 which is adapted to hold the ball-bearing thrust collar 20. Thisthrust collar forms a seat for one end of the compression spring 21, theother end of which bears against a.

plate 22 which is removably secured in any suitable manner to a sleeve23. This sleeve is j ournaled and slidable on an extension 24; of thedriven shaft 11.' A further extension 25 of this shaft may be journaledas shown for the purposes of alignment in the driving The plate 18 andthe disk elements 33 and 34 form the corresponding elements of the diskclutch, the latter being carried on an extension 35 of the bolt 15.

What l have just described is a complete clutch, and it will be observedthat the plates 30 and 31 and hence the sleeve 28 will be locked to thefly-wheel by the normal pressure of the spring 23. The releasing meansfor this clutch as well as the one which is about to be described willbe explained latter.

The sleeve 23 has an enlarged end which forms the sun gear 36 of theplanetary gear system which is shown in Fig. 5. Planet gears 37 arejournaled on studs 38 which are carried by the spider 39, which in turnhas a sleeved portion 40 which is slidably splined on the driven shaft11. This sleeve 40 has journaled thereon another sleeved member 41having a bushing 42 and a housing .3 with an annular gear 14: formedtherein. This annular gear meshes with the planet gears 37 and is theorbit of the.

planetary gear system.

The housing 43 also has a flanged extension 45 which is secured in anysuitable manner as by cap screws 46 to a spider 17 of a second diskclutch. This spider has a tubular central portion 48 and a bushing l9 inwhich is journaled the sleeve 23. The tubular portion as also carriesone or more disks 50 which are slidable thereon but are prevented fromturning thereon by lugs 51. Between the disk a7 and 50 is interposed thedisk 52, which'is carried on the extension 35 of the pin 15. The disk34: is so situated that it forms an element of both disk clutches. l

l A clutch operating element 53 having a I bushing 54, is j ournaled onthe sleeve 41 and carries a single acting clutch consisting preferablyof balls 55 which lie in the inclined notches 56 and are pressed by thesprings 57. The element 53 also has lugs 58 which engage shiftingfingers which are not shown but which act in a well known manner toprevent rotation of the element 53 and to slide it longitudinally of theshaft to engage or disengage the clutch elements. A ball bearing thrustcollar 59 is removably secured to the sleeve 41 for taking the thrust ofthe shifting element 53 which is always applied outward in opposition tothe action of the springs 21 and 26. his apparent.

that by increasing the number of loose disks the multiple disk clutchmay be expanded as far as desired.

The operation of this clutch ,is as follows :As shown the two diskclutches are normally held in engagementby the springs 21 and 26. When,however, it is desired to drive the driven shaft 11 at a slower speedthan that of the driving shaft 10, the clutch shifting element is forcedoutward away from the fly-wheel carrying with it the spider 39, theplanet gears 37 the plate 47 and the sun gear 36 and sleeve 23compressin the spring 21. I

hen held in this position and before the plate 22 comes in contact withthe sleeve 28, the disk clutch elements 47 and 50 will be disengaged,and the housing 43 which normally rotates in a clockwise directionasshown in Figure 6, now tends to turn in the reverse direction. Thisaction is due to the fact thatfthe load on' the driven shaft 11 tends tohold it stationary, the planet gears 37 then acting as idlers tend toturn the internal gear 44 in the opposite direction to the sun 36 whichis always driven in a clockwise direction, when at all, by the clutchdisk 30 acting through the splines 29.

The tendency for the housing 43 to reverse is prevented by the action ofthe balls 55 which permit motion in one direction but prevent it in theother. With the internal gear 44 held, the plamets 37 must move and theshaft 11 is driven in the same direction as the shaft 10 but at areduced speed depending upon the relative sizes of the gears.

When, however, the shift element 53 is moved outward still further, theplate 22 strikes the end of the sleeve 28 forcing the clutch disks 30and 31 out of engagement with the disks 18 and 33 and the clutches en-"tirely disconnect the shafts 10 and 11.

In Figure 2, I have shown a modification having two'single disk clutchesin which one of the disk clutches is contained entirely within thefly-wheel while the other is on the outside as in the form shown inFigure 1. The construction and operation of the two clutches are quitesimilar.

gear 44" as previously explained tends to.

run backward but is held by the balls 55 and motion is transmittedthrough the planet gears 37 a to the spider 39 and thence Y to thedriven shaft 11 This shaft is then driven at a reduced speed.

The gear 36 has a short shaft extending at both ends and slidablyjournaled in the shafts 10% and 11. This shaft 35 has keyed thereto at34 a disk clutch element 30*. As the clutch operating element 53 isfurther withdrawn, the shoulder on the bushing 49 in the sleeve 48strikes the side of the-sun gear 36*. That gear and the clutch element30 are moved away from the fly-wheel and the clutches are both disengaed, and the shaft 11 stops.

11 Figure 3, I have illustrated my invention as applied to a coneclutch. It is quite similar to the construction shown in Figure 2 sothat an extensive description of this figure seems unnecessary.

. As the housing 43 is drawn back, however, it disengages the clutchelement 47 from the other clutch element 30 and all the gears of theplanetary system move outward together owing to an extension of theclutch element 47 which bears against the side of the sun gear 36 Theclutch element 30 has a sleeved extension 28 which is splined on theshort gear shaft 35 As this gear shaft is moved outm the clutch shiftingelement 53 is further moved, the clutch element 3O will be withdrawnagainst the action of thespring'26", and both clutch elements aredisengaged.

In Figure 4 I have shown another modification employing multiple diskclutches, wherein the clutches themselves and the planetary gears areentirely enclosed and hence can run in oil if desired.

Unlike the forms shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 in which the clutch isdisengaged by moving the clutch shifting element away from thefly-Wheel, this clutch is disengaged by forcing the clutch shiftingelement 53 toward the fly-wheel. This element as in the other forms isheld from turning and as here shown is operable by a lever 52.

When the shifting element 53 is forced in, the thrust is taken by theball bearing 59 and delivered through the housing 42 to th sleeve 41 andclutch spider 43. The latter has keyed thereto in any Well known manneralternate disks of a multiple disk clutch, the intervening disks beingsimilarly carried by the main housing 48, which is bolted or otherwisesecured to the fly-wheel. On the inner circumference of the spider 43 isan annular gear 44 meshing with the planet gears 37 which are carried.by the spider 39 which terminates in a sleeve 40 which is keyed rsplined to the drive shaft 11,

The housing 48 also carries a multiple disk the alternate disks of whichare held by the spider 30 which has a sleeve 31 carrying a sun gear 36and a shoulder 32.

It will therefore be apparent that as the sleeve 41 is forced in, thedisk clutch 49 will first be disengaged. The clutch 50 will then drivethe shaft 11 through the spider 30 the sun gear 36, the, planet gear 37,the spider 39 and the splined sleeve 40. The shaft 11 will then bedriven at a reduced speed. On a further motion of the sleeve 40 it willstrike the shoulder 32 causing the clutch 50 to be disengaged and thedriving connection between shafts 10 and 11 to be bro-ken. The action ofthe ball clutch and of the springs 21 and 26 is substantially the sameas in the other figures.

In all the modifications the action of the clutches in engaging is'areversal of the orde (21f operations by which they are disengage I WhileI have shown and described but a few embodiments of my invention, it isto be understood that it, is capable of many modifications. Changestherefore in the construction and arrangement may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as disclosed in theappended claims,

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a mechanism of the class set forth, a fly wheel and a drivenmember, two clutch elements adapted to be successively operativelyconnected to the fly wheel, a planetary gear system comprising anannular gear, planet gears, and a sun gear, the annular gear beingconnected to on of said clutch units, thesun gear to the other. of

said clutch elements, and the planet gears to i the driven member anoverrunning clutch operati-vely connected to the annular gear and astationary member against which said overrunningclutch reacts wherebysaid gear may be driven in one direction but is prevented from turningin the opposite direction.

2. In a mechanism of the class set forth, a fly wheel and a drivenmember, two clutch elements adapted to be successively operativelyconnected to the fly wheel, a planetary gear system comprising anannular gear, planet gears, and a sun ar, the annular gear beingconnected to that clutch element which is first disengaged from the flywheel, the sun gear to the other of said clutch elements and the planetgears to the driven member an overrunning clutch operatively connectedto the annular gear, and a stationary member against which saidoverrunning clutch reacts.

3. In a mechanism of the class set forth, a fly wheel and a drivenmember, two clutch elements adapted to be successively operativelyconnected to the fly wheel, a planetary gear system comprising anannular gear, planet gears and a sun gear; one of said gears beingconnected to the driven member, another gear being connected to one ofsaid clutch elements and the other gear connected to the other clutchelement and means for holding against rotation that clutch unit which isfirst disconnected from the fly wheel.

4. In a mechanism of the class set forth,

a fly wheel and a driven member, two clutch elements adapted to besuccessively oper-

